


Lack of Human Experience

by 5bluetriangles



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fluff, Humans Are Weird, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-10-02 16:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 18,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17267534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5bluetriangles/pseuds/5bluetriangles
Summary: As an alien; Venom has a lot to learn about sharing a body with a human.





	1. Sneezing

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series of ficlets of Venom's reactions to different things that happen with Eddie!

Venom had grown interested in cooking.

Eddie wasn’t much of a cook to say the least, he could follow directions to make pasta or a frozen pizza, things like that.

Venom had picked up quite quickly that food actually had to be _made_.

The symbiote wanted to learn so, so much, and how meals were made became one of those things that Eddie was pestered for answer after answer that he didn’t know.

“Here, I think I have some old cookbook around here” he said after he couldn’t take another “how you do make this” question.

**What is a cookbook, Eddie?**

“It’s a uh, it’s a big book of recipes,” Eddie explained, padding into the kitchen and reaching up to the top cupboards to look for said book. “If you follow them right, then you can make the food from it.”

**We want to do that, Eddie.**

“I mean, sure, we can try to make something small I guess” Eddie hummed. He had only used the book once in attempt to make something nice for Anne and it had been alright. Not amazing, but mediocrely tasty. The idea of cooking with Venom sounded sort of fun if a little dangerous. “We’ll have to get the ingredients for whatever it is though.”

With his tongue sticking out with the effort of reaching up into the cupboard; Eddie’s fingers brushed something book-like and he gripped it, carefully pulling it out. “Therrre it is,” he smiled as he held it triumphantly before wrinkling his nose a bit as he noticed how dusty it was, a layer of the grey stuff that wasn’t horrifying, but definitely gross.

Eddie squinted, shifting the weight of the book to his left hand to hastily brush it off, sending the dust flying around the immediate vicinity and making him screw up his face, inhaling sharply before he could stop himself.

His gut clenched briefly before it became to late to stop the inevitable.

“Aaa-a _chOO_!!” he sneezed, loud enough that it rang out through their little apartment and hard enough he hunched over.

**Eddie!**

“Jesus, ugh,” he groaned, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand as he straitened back up.

**EDDIE!**

The terror in Venom’s voice alone was enough to send worry piercing through Eddie’s gut.

“What?! What’s wrong?!” he yelped, holding the cookbook to his chest and spinning around, wide eyes glancing around.

**Eddie you DIED!!**

“What??!” Eddie said again, confused and frightened by Venom’s outburst.

**Your heart stopped working for a moment when our body convulsed and you made that horrible noise, Eddie! What _was_ that?!**

“When I—my _sneeze_??”

 **Do humans normally die when sneezing?!** Venom asked desperately, voice tight with concern as spread himself all though Eddie, checking for injuries, yet he couldn’t find anything wrong other than a strange sensation in their nose.

“ _Oh_ , oh my god,” Eddie said, turning back around and setting the book down on the counter as he remembered a time once when he was surfing the internet aimlessly and read somewhere that the heart skipped a beat when you sneezed. That was apparently true if Venom’s traumatized reaction was anything to go by. “It’s…” he sighed hard, rubbing a hand down his face and letting his body relax. “It’s normal bud, I’m fine.”

 **Are we sure?** Venom asked nervously, slinking down Eddie’s arms as the man put his hands on the counter. Eddie turned them over and brought them back to himself as Venom gathered in them, forming small opal eyes that looked up at him in concern.

“Yes, we’re sure,” he promised, breathing out the tension.


	2. Music

Eddie was settled into the couch, Venom nuzzled under his chin contentedly as his fingers worked over the keyboard of his laptop disjointedly, trying to put words together and form a cohesive article.

That was hard to do when your mind was feeding you music. Music that you weren’t _trying_ to think about but couldn’t get to go away.

Every sentence or two he had to stop and agonize through the chorus a few times, then struggle to think of what to write next, write it, repeat. As if it wasn’t hard enough to write when you weren’t feeling it.

**Eddie.**

Eddie groaned softly, tilting his head back and covering his eyes with an arm. He sighed tiredly before returning back to his position and staring helplessly at the blinking little line at the end of his last sentence. “Yeah V?”

**Why do you keep thinking the same senseless sayings over and over again? It is _very_ annoying.**

“Yeah, sorry, this fuckin Taylor Swift song is stuck in my head. You can hear that?”

**You already know we can hear what you think.**

“True, I just didn’t realize that included songs.”

**How do you get rid of it, Eddie? I can even hear it when you talk.**

Eddie could hear the annoyance in Venom’s voice and feel their shared itchiness at hearing _Blank Space_ run though them again and again. “Well, sometimes if you listen to the song it will get it out of your system.”

**Try that.**

“Alright fine,” Eddie grumbled, sitting up and putting his laptop to the side to take out his phone and pull up the song on YouTube as Venom slunk back into him. He pushed himself up off the couch to plug the device into the inexpensive but fairly alright speakers on his island counter and tap play.

**This song is silly Eddie, why is this one the one that is “stuck” in our head?**

“It’s not like a have a choice, V, it just sort of happens” Eddie chuckled, cranking the volume to a reasonable loudness. “And come on, nothing wrong with Taylor Swift."

**Mmgh.**

“Well fine, you grouch.” Eddie stepped backwards and away from the counter, feet falling deliberately with the music. He didn’t dance much other than if he was feeling a certain song at the club or had just the right buzz, but he wasn’t one to deny himself the human pleasure of enjoying a catchy song and dancing to it

 **What are you doing** Venom asked in confusion at the strange, fluid way Eddie moved their body, twisting, moving their hips.

“I’m dancing” Eddie grinned.

**It is strange.**

“It’s a human thing. It’s fun.”

Maybe it wasn’t the most dignified thing, a man dancing alone in his living room to Taylor Swift and speaking seemingly to no one, but it was exactly what Eddie needed. He needed a break from that damned laptop screen and the text cursor blinking agitatingly at him.

Venom didn’t stop him when he started to sing, he could feel his amusement swimming in their stomach, and it only made him smile more, fondness shared between them so mixed together that it was impossible to tell who started the circulation of the emotion first.

Eddie was giggling and out of breath by the time the song was over, Venom melded through his heart and lungs and rumbling happily at the chemicals thrumming through them.

**Now _that_ was silly, Eddie.**

“It was fun though,” Eddie panted, cheeks pink. “Wasn’t it?”

**…Yes, I suppose so. What is the point of it?**

“That _is_ the point of it. It’s just fun” Eddie chuckled. “And guess what? I think it worked!”

There was a beat of silence, Venom searching.

**It is gone Eddie! We cannot hear it anymore!**

“Haha see? That’s all you need sometimes.”

Eddie glanced reluctantly at his abandoned laptop.

“I…should probably get back to work though” he sighed.

Venom curled up in the man’s mind, not interested in that at all, but satisfied in the lack of lyrics running through their head.

Eddie sent silent gratitude through their bond, settling back down onto the couch and pulling the laptop into his lap.

Humming a tune that quickly became dreadfully familiar.


	3. Bacteria

**Eddie you have things living inside you.**

“Uh-hum, what?” Eddie laughed in bewilderment, his hand stilling inside their family-sized m&m bag and his attention jerked away from the tv.

**Millions of things. Billions of things. Why have you not told me about all these things sharing our body?**

“Oookay, not going to lie V, that is really fucking creepy. What the fuck are you talking about?”

**All these microscopic organisms living inside you. We did not even notice them before, they are so tiny. There are so many, Eddie.**

Eddie’s face pinched with incomprehension of such a strange outside view of “Bac…bacteria?”

 **Bacteria…** Venom rumbled thoughtfully. **And humans are normally full of bacteria?** A pause. **You have several hundreds of different kinds in your bellybutton alone.**

Eddie wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Wow okay I did not need to know that. But yes, it’s normal.”

For a little bit it seemed like the strange moment had passed, and Eddie returned to their m&ms, if a bit slower than before, but then Venom spoke again.

**Do you…like these organisms living in you Eddie?**

Eddie put one more m&m in his mouth. “I mean…yeah, I guess” he shrugged. “They keep my body working right.”

Quiet again.

**…We keep your body working right, Eddie.**

Eddie tried to not smile in amusement at the irked tone in the symbiote’s voice. “Of course you do bud, it’s just, all humans need these to live.”

**And they’ve always been here? Living in you? …achieving symbiosis…**

“You don’t have think about it too much, V,” Eddie chuckled. “They just sort of chill in there and do their thing y’know."

 **But _we_ chill in you and do _our_ thing** Venom grumbled. **How long have you had these bacteria?**

“My whole life.” Eddie was amused to feel a rush of squirmy agitation coming from his other and Venom curling around his heart possessively. “What, are you jealous?”

**We simply do not like that we have to share our body with so many organisms.**

“Dude, they’re just germs.”

**Am I not a germ?**

“What?” Eddie laughed. “No.”

Venom grumbled irritably. **I am better than all your human germs combined.**

“Yes, yes you are” Eddie assured, stroking Venom’s head as the symbiote gathered on his belly to narrow his little opal eyes at him. “You’re half of us, the crap in my gut are just part of the package when being human.”

Venom stretched out, becoming snake-like and slithering around his host’s forearm, squeezing. **_My_ Eddie.**

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed, eyes sparkling with amusement. “Your Eddie.”


	4. Grooming

**Eddie why must we get up so early today.**

Eddie shared the annoyance that was laced through Venom’s voice. “I have an important interview today bud, hoping to get a real juicy article out of this guy” he explained, rubbing his eyes as he trudged to the bathroom and flinched a little as he flicked the light on.

**That doesn’t tell us why we are awake before the sun is fully out.**

“He’s this big hot shot, busy all the time, and he only had time at seven in the fuckin morning” Eddie sighed, running a hand down his face as he looked at himself in the mirror. The bags under his eyes weren’t _too_ bad, right?

He scratched at his facial hair, frowning slightly. It had gotten past the point of stubble but wasn’t to the length that looked intentional yet, leaving him in the limbo that instead made him look a bit unkempt. “Ugh, I gotta shave.”

 **Why?** Venom asked as Eddie pulled open the sink drawer, rooting through it.

“I need to look pretty put together for this” Eddie said as he pulled out his razor and grabbed the shaving cream.

**What is that?**

He had shaved before with Venom, but only with his trimmer.

“It’s a razor, it’s how you clean shave.”

**What’s unclean about the vibrator?**

Eddie couldn’t help but snort. “The beard trimmer” he corrected. “And clean shaving just means you shave off _all_ the hair on your face.” He pulled his night shirt over his head, tossing it in the laundry before turning the water on hot.

 **We like the hair on your face** Venom said, pout audible even if it wasn’t visible.

“It’ll grow back” Eddie assured, wetting his face with the hot water to soften the thick hairs before plugging the drain to let the sink fill.

 **This way of shaving is strange** Venom commented as his other patted shaving cream over his face where he needed to shave before wiping off his hands to dunk the head of razor in the now full sink and start sliding it over their skin.

Eddie offered a non-committal noise as he watched himself carefully in the mirror. It was a relaxing ritual for him, running the blade down his face a few times, rinse it in the water, and repeat, progressively revealing more and more freshly shaven skin beneath the cream.

 **This way is much quieter** Venom admitted.

“You like it?”

**We don’t know.**

“Well, maybe we’ll do it more” Eddie said. He tended to only trim because it was quicker and Venom was always so ravenously hungry when they got up. A bonus of getting up so early he supposed; not being so hungry yet.

He let the water drain out of the sink and ran the tap on cold to clean his face with, simultaneously checking to make sure he hadn’t missed any spots and feeling Venom ripple at the new sensitivity of their face.

Yet as he scratched at a spot briefly, his nails felt a big too unpleasant on freshly shaved, pink skin and he inspected them.

Eddie was a bit of a nail biter, but it wasn’t as bad as his college years and only a few had been chewed down uselessness, the rest needing to be trimmed.

 **Do humans need to shave their finger nails too?** Venom asked.

“Kinda” Eddie said, retrieving his nail clippers from the sink drawer, manipulating them into the position where they actually cut. He could feel unease dripping from his other into his own consciousness but simply went to clip the first nail.

 **Eddie _no_!** Venom cried just before the man could close the jaws of the tiny blades around his nails, taking control of their right arm to violently toss the nail clippers away from them with a small clatter.

“Woah! What the fuck man?” Eddie yelped, muscles tense and heart pounding as Venom’s fear sent signals through him.

**You aren’t allowed to cut your claws off Eddie! You will hurt us!**

“Woah bud, hey,” Eddie shushed, awkwardly bringing a hand to his chest where he could feel Venom squeezing his heart in an uncharacteristically unpleasant way. “It isn’t going to hurt.”

**You will cut too close to your flesh! You are clumsy Eddie!**

“V, I’ve been doing this my whole life and never once done that, they aren’t dangerous” he assured, bending over to pick up the clippers. Venom had been a bit freaked out by the prospect of shaving at first too but not like this.

 **Like teeth** Venom said, focusing Eddie’s eyes on the blade of the nail clippers. **We do not want us to be hurt by small metal jaws. Protect us.**

It was a nice sentiment, but whole heartedly unneeded.

“Buddy, it’s fine, I promise. Here watch, just trust me.” Eddie tried again, palms sweaty and the hair on the back of his neck prickling with Venom’s anxiety as he caught his first nail between the clippers.

One, two, three.

_Click_

Silence.

“See?”

Eddie felt his other half relax, relief washing over him as well. He couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “The most powerful thing in San Francisco that literally eats criminals is scared to cut his nails?”

Rather than getting a response; Eddie felt Venom’s irritation and embarrassment bubble up in them before finally receiving a broody **Fuck you** **.**


	5. Rainstorm

Eddie woke up outside.

In the pouring rain.

He screwed up his face, gasping and hugging himself, his shoulders hunching as he stood pitifully in the downpour.

“What the fuck?!” he shouted above the racket of the rain beating against concrete. It was shocking how loud it was when you were actually in it and the hundreds of drops that hit him were on the edge on painful on his head and face, his soaked hoodie and sweatpants protecting the rest of him.

**Look how much _water_ is coming from the _sky_ Eddie!**

“Wha— _yes_ , it is _raining_ Venom!” Eddie cried, uncrossing his arms to gesticulate angrily.

**What does that mean? Is the sky crying Eddie?**

“No!”

Eddie shielded his eyes, squinting through the gray haze of the rain and only barely making out their apartment building. But when he tried to move towards it; Venom held them in place stubbornly, not letting their legs move.

“Venom, it’s cold and I am so fucking drenched I’m pretty sure my _taint_ is wet!”

**And you are mad about that.**

“ _Yes_!”

Eddie was starting to shiver, his gut clenching and he hunched over a little as he trembled, rain assaulting his face in little pinpricks. But then his other was enveloping him, covering him in comforting warmth that made him feel a bit better, a bit less horrid.

**“Protect us”** Venom rumbled, sounding pleased with himself but at the same time crouching to all fours, inspecting the wet ground. **“Is rain what always puts the water all over the streets?”**

_Yeah_ Eddie said in their mind. _Do we have to do this right now though? I’m still mad._

**“Yes, we have to do this now”** Venom retorted, running on all fours like a beast over to the nearest building and starting to climb up as a fearful thrill ran through Eddie. His other half still didn’t like heights but he fed him his own feelings, the exhilaration, the excitement, the satisfaction of doing these things, to make him feel better about it.

_Why?_ Eddie asked, his voice in their mind shrill as if they were having a verbal conversation as they scaled the building, desperately hoping the rain wasn’t going to make them slip.

**“We have never experienced rain”** Venom said simply as they made it to the top, clambering onto the flat roof and looking all around in awe.

_You’ve never experience rain,_ Eddie corrected.

**“Is it always this violent?”** he asked, looking down at the streets below, signs and traffic lights getting beat and straining against the wind. **“We like it.”**

_No, this is a huge fucking storm and we shouldn’t be out here._

It was like a midget trying to control an untrained, over-excited St. Bernard; a lot of saying what to do and ultimately useless pulling that didn’t stop the damn thing.

But then again, it wasn’t exactly as if he was putting his foot down, was it?

**“No, it isn’t”** Venom agreed.

And they left it at that, perched on the edge of the roof and watching the storm wash the world with cold water.

_Aren’t you cold, V?_ Eddie asked. _He_ wasn’t cold anymore, but he was still drenched. He could feel the rain beating against Venom’s back and shoulders, real and there but not his body, not piercing like with his own skin and only a soothing sort of cool instead of cold.

**“No. Together as us we are strong.”**

Eddie agreed without words, the feeling mutual always and known with just feelings, with just thoughts.

The drop to the street below still made Eddie queasy, but there _was_ something somehow peaceful about the violent storm, about being out in it instead of just watching it from inside.

Until the sky was flickering with light, and Eddie braced himself for what he knew was to come, Venom backing away from the edge of the roof uncertainly, not sure what exactly it was that they were waiting for.

Not even a second later there was a gentle rumble all around them that abruptly turned into a crack and a _boom_ so loud they could _feel_ it. It pierced their ears and despite it not physically harming them like certain sounds; they bent over and covered their head frantically, their form _bristling_.

Sure, it scared Eddie; it was loud and sudden and intimidating, but he knew thunder, he knew what was happening and what it was.

Venom, Venom did not.

And the terror that took hold was not Eddie’s.

Before he could even think of what he was going to say or do; they were hurrying down the building, claws digging into the stone to create places to hold on to as their heart pounded in their ears.

He shouted to his other half, but Venom hit the ground without uttering a word, charging through the pouring rain over to their apartment building to rush inside and up the stairs to their floor.

Venom’s body was too big, and he had retreated back into Eddie by the time they were done climbing the stairs -at a pace that probably would have anyone else falling and cracking their head open- but he still used the man’s body to burst into their apartment. He slammed the door shut behind them and grabbed and threw a dining chair to climb underneath the table, curling in on themself.

_Venom, buddy, calm down_ Eddie heaved. He could feel the symbiote searching through his mind for an explanation to what had happened, too panicked to look properly or for the right things.

**_Bomb_!** Venom decided, giving Eddie back control as he coiled around the man’s forearms and pooled in his palms, seeking comfort and trying to give it. **Are bombs normal in storms Eddie? We do not like them!**

“It’s thunder sweetheart, we’re okay” Eddie assured, and god—where did ‘sweetheart’ come from? “Living on earth is going to give you PTSD, I swear” he breathed shakily, stroking his knuckles along Venom soothingly and ignoring all the water they tracked in for the time being.

**What is thunder, Eddie? Why did you not tell us that this happens?**

“It’s uh—it’s the sound lightning makes” Eddie said, trying to pull up old memories from early childhood science classes. “Lightning is electricity and when it passes through the air it makes shit vibrate” he explained, waving his left hand around, his right holding a glob of his symbiote. “Sound is vibration, lightning creates it and was…well, really fucking loud.”

There was a long moment, the fear starting to ebb away as the storm outside pounded against the windows in a steady, relaxing rhythm of rain fall.

**It was scary Eddie** Venom said, tightening his grip on his other half’s arm and wrist.

“Yeah. But everything’s okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Venom continues to get scared by earth lol


	6. Makeup

After everything had settled down with the Life Foundation and his life wasn’t _constantly_ falling apart; Eddie found he and Venom visiting Dan and Anne nearly once a week.

He didn’t feel as though he deserved their kindness and friendship but Anne had told him that even though she didn’t forgive him for what he did; she had moved on, was done with it, and it was just the kind of thing that made him feel bad because he knew he probably wouldn’t have been so mature about it.

But the four of them would have dinner and drinks, watch movies, play board games every once and a while, normal friend things. And there was something very comforting about having people that cared about him, wanted to spend time with him and enjoyed his company.

Eddie and Venom were just with Dan tonight, the man having invited them over for a movie while Anne was out with friends. Venom had let him have beer without too much complaining for once and the three of them settled on the couch to watch some teen romcom the symbiote had picked as they chatted.

Dan shared funny moments from the ER during the past week and Eddie told the man about the scandal he had nearly wrapped up on the pharmacy that was illegally distributing substances to junkies and even Venom joined in on that one. Poor guy had been being kept up at night along with Eddie working on the article after all. So, it was mostly just complaining about how little sleep they had been getting.

The conversation was then suddenly turned into Dan teaching Venom the concept of “sleep hygiene” and why it was so important and why Eddie’s was _decidedly_ awful, to which Eddie could roll his eyes fondly. It was a nice thing really, people looking out for him when they really didn’t need to.

It was then, Dan kindly scolding the two of them over their unfavorable sleeping habits; that Anne got home, coming in with a familiar look of “I had a nice time but am very much finished”.

Dan got up to greet her at the door, giving her a kiss on the cheek and helping her out of her nice jacket as Eddie scratched Venom under the chin at the symbiote’s demand, wanting attention as well. As if he hadn’t been getting attention mere moments ago.

“Hey Eddie, hey Venom” Anne smiled tiredly as she retuned Dan’s affections.

“How was it?”

“Good! It was good. Danielle brought some really good wine as usual and I’m thinking maybe I didn’t have enough because I only won three games of Uno” Anne chuckled.

Dan and Eddie both took time to gape.

“Anne Weying, I’m surprised at you!” Dan started, placing a dramatic hand upon his chest.

“How could you not destroy all your poor friend’s hopes by kicking their asses every single time?” Eddie said in mock dismay.

“Oh, quiet you two” Anne shook her head as she hung up her purse on a little hook near the door and put her keys on the hook just next to it. “Okay, I’m gonna go change if you guys don't mind.”

Eddie gave a "go ahead" and Dan gave an “m’kay” before returning to his spot on the couch, Venom’s mass in Eddie’s lap.

The symbiote twisted up Eddie’s forearm to curl in and around his fingers, extending a little head out with small opalescent eyes to look around for where Anne had gone, curious.

By the time she had returned; Venom had nearly lost interested, but he perked up when she did, only to startle, his mass prickling and shifting with strange, asymmetrical patterns that caught Eddie’s attention.

“What’s wrong buddy?” the man asked, bringing his hand that the symbiote was perched on closer to his chest as his skin tingled and Venom’s distress slithered through their shared mindscape. He looked up briefly to where his Other was facing to see Anne in the doorway, pulling her hair out from her change of shirt. “It’s just Anne” he said, confused.

 **What happened to her face?** Venom asked cautiously in their mind, coiling tighter in Eddie’s palm.

“Wha…” Eddie looked back to Anne, who had paused, looking at them with a questioning look on her face. “What do you mean?”

**All her colour is gone, Eddie. What did she do to herself?**

“What?” Dan asked, catching on to the fact that there was a conversation happening that he couldn’t hear.

**“What is wrong with Anne’s face?”**

“Excuse me?”

Eddie rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, I don’t know, he was saying your colour is gone?”

Anne pulled a face. “Wait, you mean my makeup?”

**“Does taking it off make you colourless like Dan? You can remove your colour?”**

“Hey, what about Eddie? He doesn’t wear makeup either” Dan interjected.

**“Eddie turns red often, he does not need extra colour”**

“Oh great, thanks.”

“Wait guys, wait,” Anne put her hand up. “Venom, you didn’t know you can take makeup off?”

 **“We did not know that it was what decorated your face”** Venom said, pausing a bit before adding **“we…wondered why it wasn’t always the same.”**

“You thought Anne just looked like that normally?” Eddie giggled, suppressed enough for it not to be impolite.

**“Well how was I supposed to know?”**

“He’s got a point” Dan said.

**“Thank you.”**

“It’s fascinating actually” the man continued, shifting to gesticulate with his hands even if Anne gave him a fond but exasperated ‘here we go’ look. “I mean, if you just showed up on earth, seeing humans without prior knowledge, wouldn’t you think everyone was born with things like that? Makeup, piercings, tattoos! Wouldn’t you think that like, Eddie was just born with his tattoos?” Dan said, gesturing next to him to the man in question.

As if to demonstrate without meaning to, Eddie moved his arm and glanced at the ink coming from underneath his shirt sleeve.

 **“Eddie…was _not_ born like that?”** Venom asked with trepidation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter!


	7. Art

There was something very right about being on his motorcycle again to Eddie, hearing her purr as he drove around town, wind whipping against his leather jacket.

He and Venom had gone out to find it and while it wasn’t totaled; it had taken a while to save up enough to get it fixed and it felt damn nice to finally ride again. She probably worked even better than before the chase.

Venom liked it too even if it wasn’t as exciting as the last time he rode it and they were actually following the rules of the road. He could slither out along Eddie’s arms and across his back under the man’s jacket in their own sort of embrace, letting the world fly by and enjoying the quiet in their shared mind. He wished to feel the wind in their hair but Eddie hadn’t allowed it, saying he liked living, which was only a little offensive. He could keep his Eddie safe. The man hadn’t budged on it though.

After a while when they were stopped at a long stop light; Eddie flipped up his visor and inched his sleeve up a bit to look at his watch before sliding the visor back down over his eyes and setting off as the light changed.

**Where are we going, Eddie?** Venom asked as he caught on to the fact that they were no longer aimlessly driving around, his other half actually paying attentions to turns.

“Uh, old college friend is appearing in an art show, he invited me” Eddie replied. A bonus of Venom being in his head was that the symbiote could hear him just fine even with the bike and the wind and the cars. He didn’t even need to speak, only think it, but he tended to just talk out loud unless he needed to be private.

**Oh yeah** Venom rumbled, remembering.

“Yeah, he actually turned out pretty successful. He’s got like, a wife and kids I think.”

**You were successful.**

“Like, over half a year ago, sure.”

They were doing alright for themselves, they could pay the rent, eat, and afford the everyday things they needed, but Eddie didn’t have a completely stable job yet and his income wasn’t lavish, mostly just picking them up where he could. He was still searching for one he could settle into but he found himself not minding that he wasn’t some big hotshot anymore like he wanted to be so badly when he was going through school. He was pretty happy just staying home with his symbiote even if that was dreadfully mushy.

They found a place to park in the building’s parking lot, Eddie stuffing his hands in his pockets as they made their way inside only to discover that this was definitely not their type of venue. He hunched his shoulders a little as he paused awkwardly in the entrance, feeling very out of place in the all rich white people quietly regarding the paintings and sculptures while he stood there in his old jeans, leather jacket, and his stubble and always tussled hair.

**What the hell is this?**

Eddie cleared his throat quietly, crossing the threshold and thankful that everyone was too focused on the art to notice how lost he was. “This is the art show” he whispered like everyone else was to not break the quiet.

**Boring, Eddie!** Venom whined, curling around the man’s fingers within the safety of their jacket pockets. **Why is everyone looking at strange splashes of colour? That one is just a bunch of triangles!**

“Uh, it’s meant to make you feel something. Like, the people look at it and try to find the meaning within it. Or some of them just look nice” Eddie tried to explain, aimlessly wondering over to a painting people weren’t standing around. It was full yellows and reds and pinks, sometimes blending together smoothly and sometimes standing out sharply against each other, a stark light blue added here and there. “Here what about this one? Does it make you feel anything?”

There was a long moment and Eddie couldn’t tell if it was because Venom was pondering it deeply or because he had to work that hard to find something.

**Hungry.**

Eddie half snorted in amusement, covering it up with a cough and wiping the back of his hand under his nose as he found himself smiling dumbly off in the corner by himself.

No, not by himself.

“Of course. Of course it makes you feel hungry” he chuckled quietly, shaking his head.

“Eddie! Hey man!” a voice was suddenly whisper shouting to him, and he turned to see a short, stocky man that was still recognizable after all this time. “I can pick that weird shuffling in place slouch out of any crowd.”

“Psh, thanks. Hey Matt” Eddie smiled, shaking the man’s hand. “You’ve still got horrible taste in glasses I see.”

“Ah! Yes of course! It’s my trademark y’see,” Matt giggled, adjusting said glasses on his stout face.

“Well, that’s true.”

“I’m glad you could make it dude! Didn’t know if you were still swamped with all that Life Foundation shit I saw all over the news.”

“Ah yeah.” Eddie itched the back of his neck a little self-consciously. “It quieted down pretty quick actually, I got a few interviews after I got out of the hospital and got my named mostly cleared on tv but the media was more interested in the actual ordeal than the fact that I was right. But how’ve you been? Pretty high class place you got yourself into.”

“Yikes. I’ve been good though! Me, Emily and the kids are actually going out on vacation after this. And, heh, it helps when your style of art actually fits into what people like nowadays y’know. You seen my pieces?”

“Naw, w— _I_ just got here.” Eddie could feel Venom wriggle a little in his belly with agitation but he ignored it.

If Matt found the stumble in words strange, he didn’t show it, instead announcing “Right this way good sir,” with a humorously dramatic wave of his hand.

Eddie followed Matt to a smaller room that seemed like was all his, taking in all the colourful pieces. “Damn, you’ve really fleshed your style out” he commented. All the paintings were different but the brush strokes and paint splatters and drips were undoubtedly all the same artist.

“Thanks! I try” Matt smiled, hands on his hips.

Eddie could feel a muddled, intangible emotion from Venom right behind his ribs as he slithered through him curiously. But then suddenly he was speaking not of his own accord, his Other using his vocal chords. “I like how chaotic it is. Very unplanned and exciting” Venom said through him and for a moment anxiety flooded through him but as he glanced over, Matt was still smiling.

“Haha yeah, I kind of just set everything up and go at it. I like to just see where the paint takes me, just let it happen.”

That was just a _little_ too poetic for Eddie but Venom was enraptured, buzzing under his skin and slinking around his forearm to squeeze fondly.

**Like me Eddie** the symbiote said softly despite the nature his voice. **Like me before I became Us, just letting things happen the way they did with no idea what I was doing. And life brought us to each other.**

Eddie swallowed.

Wow.

Okay.

That was…

He could feel Venom pooling in his palm, lacing between his fingers in the privacy of his pocket.

He gave him a squeeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved the idea of Venom liking abstract and got a snow day today so heck yea here's some cute Eddie and his sappy little goo monster


	8. Pets

**Eddie!** Venom exclaimed, the palpable fascination making the man slow in his trek down the sidewalk. **What is that?**

“What’s what?” Eddie asked, looking around aimlessly before his Other urged his gaze over to a particular storefront he had just passed. He was quick to spot the little cartoon animals on the sign and paw print decals on the windows. “Looks like a pet store” he concluded.

**No Eddie, _that_ ,** Venom rumbled in their shared mindscape, taking control as the man let him to walk over to the large window and look in at a little fuzzy creature jumping around in the displayed enclosure. He watched as it ran over to two more that were sleeping, pouncing on them and waking them up to play.

“Aw!” Eddie said. “They’re ferrets.”

**Ferrets?** Venom echoed, eyeing the strange animals, long bodied and energetic as they danced around and tumbled over each other.

“Yeah. People like to keep them as pets. They’re uh… ‘mustelids’ I th—”

**They look delicious.**

Eddie’s innate reaction to his interruption told Venom that this was decidedly an animal that he wasn’t allowed to eat.

“No! You don’t get to eat ferrets!”

**We eat rats** Venom pointed out. It wasn’t that often, but he was allowed to eat the quick little vermin when they spotted them in their apartment building, the idea of finding one of them in their apartment upsetting Eddie. **And mice.**

“Ferrets are different!”

**How?**

“Well. Uhm.” Eddie rubbed the back of his neck, putting a finger up to the glass as one of the ferrets came over to look at him through it. “I mean, these guys are domesticated, us humans like them ‘cause they’re cute and make good pets.”

**Cows are domesticated and we eat them. Dan cooks them very tasty for you and gives us some raw. We learn to eat dead meat.**

“Yeah but like…” Eddie shifted where he stood, unsure. “I dunno man, we just don’t eat cute little animals that we keep as pets.”

He caught the way a man coming down the sidewalk made a larger arc around him then necessary and let out a little breath of a laugh. Poor guy. Probably a tourist. There were stranger things to see than him and his alien body mate’s conversations.

“Here, let’s go see them” he offered, going around the window to enter the shop, little bell ringing as he opened the door and brought the not-overpowering-but-very-present smell of animals upon his nose.

Venom made a noise of faint disgust. **Smelly, Eddie.**

“Yeah, well, it’s a store full of animals” Eddie replied as he took the little place in for a moment, eyes roaming over the enclosers with hamsters and guinea pigs and the like, the back of the store with fish, and the isles with pet supplies, before turning to the ferrets.

The most active of the bunch tumbled over to them and Eddie glanced at the sign taped to the glass the read ‘ _pet us but please don’t pick us up!_ ’ before reaching down to meet it. It whuffled at his fingers endearingly and he went to pet it, only for it to bounce and roll around playfully, making him chuckle.

**Strange.**

“What is?” he asked, wiggling his fingers at the silly ferret.

**Humans make connections so quickly with little fuzzy creatures. They see things to protect, to befriend.** Venom paused, studying the way Eddie’s brain reacted to the creature’s behavior. **We see snacks. _Toys_.**

Eddie swallowed at the threat in his Other’s voice, removing his hand from the enclosure and putting both in his pockets. “Well. You’re a predator. That’s just how you are.”

**Wish we could understand, Eddie.**

“It’s…okay that you don’t though” he said. “You don’t have to understand boundaries to respect them.”

Sometimes it was all too easy for Eddie to forget Venom’s nature. Amongst the sleepy, vulnerable mornings spent together and the gentle nights where he dozed off with pitch black lying on his chest or belly and small, wide opal eyes that saw the beauty in the world that he couldn’t; one could forget how the same being could and would mercilessly tear flesh from bone only to eat the bones after as well.

He…was okay with that though.

The first couple days together had been a hot mess but they were getting pretty good at this in Eddie’s opinion. They would go out to hunt every once and a while when Venom needed it, stocking up on chocolate for phenylethylamine when they weren’t doing that, and were getting better at each other’s boundaries. Eddie didn’t call Venom a parasite or exclude him anymore and Venom didn’t take control of their body without Eddie letting him or blindly eat things.

They stood in comfortable silence for a few moments, watching the ferrets, before Venom spoke up.

**Does Eddie want one?**

“What? Oh! No. No. They’re cute but I don’t really want a pet” Eddie shook his head. “I don’t know if we’d even be able to afford it. And y’know, it would depend on if you wanted one too” he shrugged. “It’s a big responsibility.”

**We want to try to take care of something. Not an animal though.**

“You take care of me,” he pointed out, shifting in place.

**Something else. Want to understand love for something small and unimportant** Venom rumbled, thoughtful.

“Hmm…maybe a plant? I’m uh, not great with those” Eddie chuckled shamefully, thinking of the poor, long dead twig in his window. “We could get something hardy though. And try.”

He could feel Venom’s eager curiosity at the aspect and filed the information away for later.

**We’d like that.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a petting zoo but that's the suggestion this chapter was based off! Tried to convey how while a lot of human stuff is learn-able on Venom's part, he just isn't human and some concepts are harder to grasp than others on a fundamental level rip


	9. Hot Chocolate

**Eddie, what is “Swiss Miss”?**

Eddie looked up from the two different flavors of Ramen he was trying to decide between to turn and look behind him where a tendril of Venom was tugging him.

“It’s hot chocolate” he said as he spotted the boxes of the stuff on the shelf.

**What’s that? Is it tasty?**

“Yeah, I think you’d like it bud. It’s a chocolate drink.”

**We want to buy some.**

“Alright sure,” Eddie chuckled, grabbing a sizable box -“no, not two, V”- and adding it to the little handheld basket with the other choices of food they had taken to.

Mrs. Chen eyed each of said choices skeptically as she rang them up and under her skillful ‘disapproving mother’ look, Eddie added a banana and two apples to the counter sheepishly.

“Does your friend not know what healthy foods are? I know you don’t” the woman declared.

“Ah, well, y’see Mrs. Chen,” Eddie winced. “We just _really_ like chocolate” he offered as she rang up four large Hershey’s chocolate bars in a row from their little basket.

“Mm _hmm_. Well, I’m just glad you’re doing better” Mrs. Chen said as she packed the man’s purchases into a plastic bag. “Not a wallowing drunk anymore.”

“Kind of hard to do that when your body mate gets pissy any time you drink any more than a couple beers.”

“Good, it should keep that up” Mrs. Chen nodded. “Maybe you should talk to that doctor friend of yours and get them to teach it all about healthy eating.”

“Pass,” Eddie rolled his eyes, not wanting to imagine, before taking out his wallet to pay and receive his bag. “Night Mrs. C!” he called as he left.

He took a moment to look over to where Maria always used to sit, his smile falling and tucking his free hand into his pocket. He had given her blankets out to other homeless people around town and the little photo album he had found and not looked through out of courtesy was now homed in his linen closet for safe keeping.

It was a short walk back home, a few minutes of being harassed for ‘ **some chocolate right now, Eddie** ’ and the man was putting away the ramen, beer, three fruits, chocolate, and tater tots.

**Want to try hot chocolate** Venom declared, slithering down Eddie’s arms and extending two tendrils to pick up the box, bringing more of himself out from the man’s shoulder and forming a head to tear at the corner with his teeth.

“Stop that!” Eddie scolded, taking the box away from his other to set it back on the counter. “First we have to heat up some water” he explained, getting his old tea kettle out of the cupboards to pour some water from the tap into it.

**“I thought it was a chocolate drink”** Venom said, bringing the tendrils back inside them but leaving his head out to watch.

“It is. But you just use hot water and then put in the mix.”

**“So, it is…chocolate water?”**

“I mean…sorta? But if you just put normal chocolate in hot water it would be pretty gross” Eddie replied, putting the kettle on the stove and turning the burner on.

While they were waiting for the water; he got out a mug and poured one of the packets from the box into it, letting Venom lick the inside of the packet clean before tossing it in the trash. He eyed the mangled corner of the poor Swiss Miss box as he put it away in the cupboard.

Venom managed to pick up the tea kettle just as it stated to make noise, catching it before it started to full on screech and awkwardly handing it to Eddie with a **“Here.”**

“Thanks,” Eddie said, careful not to touch the metal and burn himself as he shifted the kettle in his hands to pour the steaming hot water into their mug, the hot chocolate mix swirling and turning the water rich brown. He turned the stove burner off after setting the kettle down and dug a spoon out of a drawer to stir the drink up well, the appetizing smell reaching his nose.

**“Let me try it, Eddie”** Venom demanded eagerly, maneuvering to avoid Eddie’s arms and extend his tongue out towards the mug.

“No, no! Not yet!” Eddie yelped, moving the hot drink away from the tooth filled maw that was advancing much too quickly for comfort. “You’ll burn yourself!”

**“But you said _hot_ chocolate, Eddie. It is hot now.”**

“It’s _too_ hot though, you have to let it cool down a bit first” Eddie insisted, holding the mug further away and shooting a meaningful look at the symbiote.

**“We will not burn ourselves. It is only liquid.”**

Eddie squinted at his other tight lipped and Venom squinted back, the mug growing hotter and hotter against his fingers even as he held it by the handle and finally, he set it back down on the counter. “Fuckin hell, fine, but I get to say I told you so when you burn the fuck out of your tongue.” He leaned against the counter pseudo-casually, watching Venom’s face shift in the subtlety that only he could read, smug, inspecting the steaming mug.

His scalp prickled with Venom’s confidence as the symbiote’s dexterous tongue came out surprisingly delicately to dip into the hot chocolate.

The reaction, of course, was immediate.

Venom’s form bristled aggressively and he jerked back, hurriedly floating back over to Eddie -who winced at the reverberation of the pain- with a yowl, looking to the little mug incredulously as though it was its fault.

**“Hurt, Eddie!”** he cried, circling around the man’s shoulders to lay himself across them petulantly.

“Aaand I told you so” Eddie sighed, wiping a hand down his face as Venom’s head rubbed against his cheek. “I told you it was hot, you big baby.”

**“Not hot! Scalding!”**

"Okay let’s try this,” he offered, picking the mug back up and putting it in the fridge. “If we leave that in there for just a minute maybe it’ll cool down quicker.”

**“Why drink hot chocolate if it burns when it is hot?”**

“Well, you don’t drink it when it’s hot.”

**“So, you drink it when it is warm?”**

“Yeah.”

**“Then why is it not called warm chocolate?”**

“You know I-…I don’t know. It sounds better I guess?” Eddie shrugged. “Is you tongue okay?” he asked, encouraging Venom’s head from his shoulder to inspect the tip of the symbiote’s tongue. The taste buds there looked aggravated but it seemed alright.

Venom rumbled, appreciating the attention.

**“We are fine.”**

“Did you learn your lesson?”

**“Perhaps.”**

“Okay good” Eddie said, pulling the fridge back open to retrieve the hot chocolate. He dipped his finger in carefully, sucking it clean once he decided that yes, it was safe to drink, and offered it to his Other. “Here, try it now.”

Venom was more hesitant this time about dipping his tongue into the drink, but his form rippled with excitement at the taste and his head shifted to his smaller form to sip.

**“It’s good!”**

“See? You just gotta be patient every one and a while” Eddie chuckled.


	10. Hiccups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning; V eats a guy in this chapter!

Venom love to hunt.

Enveloping Eddie and taking control, climbing his way up buildings and hiding in darkness, half waiting, half searching for prey. And, of course, the payoff was grand; he loved to eat.

Eddie on the other hand didn’t really enjoy the eating part like his Other did; but he could enjoy hunting. There was something about it, the way he and Venom merged so seamlessly, their thoughts and senses mingling in a way that left him even more sure that symbiosis was something you couldn’t come back from than he was before. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

They climbed the side of a run down, practically abandoned apartment building from the side that faced the alleyway, claws digging into the brick before they heaved themselves onto a shitty little balcony. The minor feat was still enough to leave Eddie’s blood pumping; the strength and purpose between everything they did when they were together. The thrill of what they were able to do, the hunt, and being One always made for an exhilarating experience.

They hunkered down on the dirty, abandoned balcony, peering out into the lonely street where the street lights were sparse, and they waited.

No luck actively hunting meant finding a safe spot to hide in a bad part of town and all they had to do was wait till something came along. The unfavorable humans practically bore their delicate throats to Venom as he lay still in the cover of darkness.

He and Eddie didn’t speak, didn’t need to, focused on the sights and smells and sounds around them. There was traffic in the distance, the smell of wet cement, the way one of street lights flickered slightly, the very faint sound of a tv playing somewhere in one of the few occupied apartments. It all felt so close and personal with Venom’s heightening of their senses.

It wasn’t more than half an hour before they spotted two people.

They didn’t seem to be together, but the man taking up the rear was too close to be comfortable, that fact punctuated by the woman’s posture as she came closer and closer to Eddie and Venom’s alley, walking tight and quick but not outwardly hurried. They both looked like they weren’t faring well, skinny and disheveled, and Venom could smell fear, a smell that made him tune in and his claws itch.

Sure enough, by the time the woman had made it to the alley; the man had caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her into the entrance and pushing her back up against the wall.

“What do you have on you?” The man demanded, wanting to make it quick.

“This. O-only this” the woman replied shakily, voice tight and scared as she held out her wrist and pulled up her hoodie sleeve to reveal a little bracelet. “Please don’t take it. It’s only worth memories,”

Eddie and Venom didn’t need to hear or see more, rising from their crouch on the balcony and jumping down into the alley, their form tall and broad and intimidating.

The small woman still didn’t scream, but she stared wide-eyed and horrified, the man spinning around and shouting in surprise.

They stepped in, taking the man’s bicep like he did the women’s and pulling him away from her, catching her covering her mouth and pressing against the alley wall as he did.

“Oh, what the fuck!” the man cried.

**“You think you can get away with taking advantage of small, defenseless people.”** It wasn’t a question. **“No way to treat a lady,”** Venom pointed to the terrified woman. **“No way to treat a person.”**

The man glanced over to where the symbiote pointed, bewildered, before very quickly returning his gaze to the practical hell spawn holding onto him.

**“What to you have to say for yourself?”** Venom growled, unable to help but smile, toothy and sharp.

There was nothing the man could say to excuse it, and his little heart was thundering in his chest, and Venom couldn’t wait to tear it open, his grip on his arm tightening.

“I—I just—I just need a little money, that’s all, I wasn’t going to hurt her” the man pleaded.

Venom merely eyed the small blade held in the man’s fist pointedly.

His gaze was followed, and the man gripped it with worry, knowing it was too late to hide it.

Venom looked to the woman, looking for all the world like she might cry but was too shocked to do so. **“No place for you. Go.”**

And she did, suddenly returning to her senses and _running_.

**“We do not like people like you** ” Venom rumbled to the remaining human. He pulled him closer, baring his teeth. **“We ruin people like you.”**

“Please, I—” the man choked, dropping the blade in favour of trying to get the large hand around his arm to remove itself.

**“We’ve not had a meal in a while,”** Venom went on, licking his rows of teeth and cherishing the surge of fear pouring out of the man in his grasp and the way he struggled. **“We will make it quick though, our other half does not like to play with his food as much as I do.”**

And he did, pinning the thin man to the dirty concrete and tearing into his throat.

It was a tangy and tough meal, one that Venom made short work of, wolfing it down with a vigor he didn’t demonstrate when it came to ‘Eddie food’ and once he was full and sated; he returned into his other half, leaving Eddie standing in the alley with only deep crimson blood splattering the concrete.

Eddie bent over a little, hands on his knees as he took a dizzy moment to breathe, tiny little raindrops soaking into his hair and clothes as a slight drizzle began.

There was silence, Venom happy and comfortable around Eddie’s heart and Eddie taking just a little time to process before suddenly something in him spasmed and a noise escaped him, high and short.

Venom perked up, oozing out of Eddie’s shoulder in a strand and forming little eyes. **“What was that?”**

“It was—” a another. “It was a hiccup.”

**“What is a hick up? You are not going to vomit, are you? We will not let you.”**

“No, no I just—” Eddie brought a fist to his mouth to stifle the squeaking noise. “You ate too fast.”

**“Does doing that make our diaphragm malfunction?”**

Eddie chuckled. “It’s not malfunctioning, it’s just, like, spasming. It happens sometimes.”

**“What purpose does it serve?”** Venom asked with a hint of irritation as Eddie hiccupped again.

“I don’t think it serves any purpose” Eddie replied, looking around briefly before leaving the alley and walking down along the sidewalk. “It’s just a thing bodies do.”

**“That’s stupid. We like eating fast.”**

Another hiccup.

Venom grumbled, seeping back into Eddie and slithering through him to inspect his diaphragm. **When does it stop.**

“I dunno,” the man shrugged, pulling out his phone to look how to get home. “Some people drink water. Some people think you can ‘scare’ them away.”

**Scare them? They do not have feelings, do they?**

“No, no” Eddie chortled, shaking his head. “Some people just think that if you scare a person that has the hiccups; the hiccups will go away. I’ve never seen it work though.”

Venom hummed in thought before suddenly the toe of Eddie’s shoe caught on a higher section of sidewalk and he was tumbling forward towards the ground.

His phone dropped and hit the concrete, but before his face met the same fate as he shouted in distress; Venom caught them, shooting out to support them and leaving Eddie standing at a sharp incline, arms extended.

“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed, breathing hard as Venom pushed them back upright and sunk back into him. He clutched his chest, his heart pounding, and bent down to pick up his phone. He inspected it with concern, glad to find that only the case was banged up.

**Eddie.**

“Yeah. Yeah, thank you” Eddie panted.

**Eddie are you sure you’ve never seen the scaring thing work?**

“Yeah. Why?”

**Because it just worked.**

They paused, waiting for a long moment.

“Well damn, alright then.”


	11. Plant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well man this came out quick haha. Enjoy as I continue fumble my way through writing multi chapter fics :P

“How about we go here? Looks pretty good.”

**“There’s so many plants, Eddie!”** Venom exclaimed from his spot on the man’s shoulder as he showed him the pictures of the shop on his phone.

“Well yeah” Eddie chuckled. “It’s a plant nursey. Best place to get plants. They’ll probably know what won’t die at our hands.”

**“Yes, let’s go there”** Venom agreed, stretching out of tendril to retrieve Eddie’s wallet from the coffee table and hand it to him, a silent addition of ‘right now’.

Eddie didn’t mind; that had already been the plan, and after getting into his leather coat and grabbing his helmet they were out the door, rumbling down the street on their motorcycle.

Venom’s excitement had waned in the time it took to arrive at Clement Nursey but at the sight of all the green in the window; he was eager to go in and see what they could be getting. Learning how to care about a living thing that wasn’t human sounded easier if it wasn’t something he’d like to eat. If he could learn at all.

“Yeah, yeah, I know” Eddie smiled as Venom urged him to walk from their bike to the door quicker, pushing it open with only a little hesitance. He had seen pictures of this place on google and seen how many plants they had but it felt more impressive in real life.

“Hello there!” a kind-looking woman at the counter greeted. “Anything I can help you with today?”

“Yeah actually,” Eddie replied, shuffling a bit in place. “I’m uh, looking for a plant that I won’t kill immediately? I like them but like, I have to idea what I’m doing.”

“Sure thing!” the woman smiled, stepping out from around the counter. “Let’s see what’ll suit you. Are you looking for a hanging plant or one to set somewhere?”

“Uh…it’d be nice if I could set it on my window sill” Eddie itched the back of his neck.

“Okay, what about size? Big? Small? Just right?”

Eddie chuckled.

“I don’t mind if it’ll get big but I’ve only got my bike” he thumbed towards the door. “So, I need something pretty small so I can actually bring it home.”

“Perfect. Now let’s see what we’ve got here…” the woman hummed, leading him over to the smaller plants, all the plastic pots about the size of his fist. “We’ve got the Golden Pothos Vine here to start off with. They grow really fast and can get quite big which a lot of people like and they root really easily” she gestured to a little plant with wide, green and yellow leaves. “We’ve got the Spider Plant, it can get large but not too large, and once they’re full grown and if they’re healthy they’ll make tiny babies that you can snip off and grow somewhere else” she showed and another with long skinny leaves. “The Snake Plant, which are particularly hardy. They can handle not getting tons of light and as long as you’re watering it when it’s dry it’ll be happy” one with long dark green striped leaves. “They take a while to grow but get big. And finally, Lucky Bamboo. They’re hardy too and can handle pretty bad conditions -though you shouldn’t put them it one of course- and can be fun to groom.”

Eddie looked at all the options, only a little overwhelmed. It wasn’t actually that many but it still seemed like a lot to someone who had no idea what they were doing. “Well…hardy is good” he began, narrowing it down to the last two. “I like the look of the Snake Plant.”

_What do you think?_ he privately asked Venom in their mind, receiving an okay.

“Great! One thing about these little guys here; the plastic pots are only temporary so you’ll need to repot them.”

Eddie must have made a face because the woman gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t worry, it’s really easy with babies like these. I’m assuming you don’t have a pot or soil?”

He didn’t, and the woman was kind enough to help him pick out a bag of soil that would fit in a plastic shopping bag and a simple little pot before ringing everything up. It wasn’t too much money, and Eddie payed with cash, receiving a carefully packed-for-the-road bag that he was able to hold in his lap on the way home as Venom helped to hold onto it.

A quick check to make sure his purchases were alright after they parked; and Eddie was getting back into their apartment.

“Alright” he said, setting the bag down on the island counter and putting his hands on his hips. “How are we gonna do this.”

**“We can just do it on the counter”** Venom said as he extended his little snake-like from Eddie’s shoulder. **“The dirt will clean.”**

“Yeah I guess” Eddie mumbled. He didn’t really want to get the potting soil all over his counter but Venom was right; it would clean. He pushed the things on the counter out of the way before taking everything out of the bag and looking at the little plant they had bought. “It’s pretty cute, isn’t it?”

**“Yes”** Venom agreed, peering at the items on the counter.

Eddie peeled the price tag off of the little pot and carefully tore the bag of potting soil open to pour some into it, wincing as a bit spilled onto the counter.

**“Smells funny”** his Other commented.

“Yeah, it’s not regular dirt, it’s soft and fluffy and has like, nutrients in it. For the plant.”

**“Does the plant need to eat?”** Venom asked.

“Sort of. Not like us though. It kinda uh, absorbs the nutrients from the dirt” Eddie replied, patting the soil down into the little pot gently. “Okay now for the nerve-wracking part” he breathed, chewing his lip. He was overly careful as he wiggled the plant around in its temporary home to loosen up it’s roots and gently dug his fingers underneath it to lift it out, spilling a bunch of soil in the process.

He made a noise of distaste at the mess, but awkwardly put the plant into its new pot and used his hands to dig more soil out of the bag.

**“Will it die?”**

“I hope not” he said. “The lady said he might get a tad wilt-y from getting repotted but he should be okay.”

**“It is a male?”**

“Oh, uh. I don’t know. Plants don’t have genders, I was just sorta calling it that” Eddie chuckled in embarrassment, pressing the soil around the plant’s base so it was nice and cozy. If plants could be cozy. He liked to think so.

**“So, we can call it whatever we want?”**

“Pretty much, yeah.”

**“We want to call it a she”** Venom decided.

“Okay sure,” Eddie agreed, dusting his hands off before gathering all the potting soil on the counter into a little pile so he could clean it up. “What should we name her then?”

**“Hmm…”** the symbiote rumbled, hovering over to look closely at the little plant. **“Rampage.”**

“Rampage…?” a pause. “You know what? That’s perfect bud.”

Venom's pleasure at the validation was worth having the plant be given such a name.

And really, Eddie hadn't been lying.

It was just right for their own strange little world.


	12. Date

**Where are we going, Eddie?**

“It’s a surprise” the man replied, shifting his grip on the handlebars of his motorcycle. “And don’t you dare go poking around in my head.”

He didn’t entirely know why he was taking Venom out like this but it felt right. He had remembered how his Other had liked the view from his old office building of the city at night with all the lights and relative quiet and wanted to treat him.

It was night now too, and he was heading out to Twin Peaks, the cold making his face sting a bit but his coat and gloves blocked most of it from getting to the rest of him as they steadily climbed the road up.

Venom rippled curiously as they came out over a hill, the road turning back around and creating a U-shape where Eddie drove into the wrong lane to ride up against the road’s guard rail after making sure the coast was clear. Surely it wasn’t allowed but neither of them were really worried about it.

It was once Eddie parked relatively safely to the side, removed his gloves to put them on his bike and climbed over the guard rail that the symbiote noticed the view and their mindscape grew quiet.

**Wow** he said after a moment.

“Yeah” Eddie agreed, sitting down on the rail and hunching his shoulders a little in the chill. It was worth it though as he put his hands in his coat pockets and felt his Other slithering between his fingers fondly.

**It’s beautiful** Venom rumbled, looking out over the expanse of the city, lights twinkling and cars weaving between buildings.

“Yeah, it is” Eddie smiled.

From up here it almost didn’t seem real, everything looked so small and crowded when in the streets some buildings you had to look straight up to see where they ended up in the sky. It looked peaceful when you weren’t in the middle of all the cars and people and noise. Dozens of stars speckled the sky above them and they looked up at the dizzying expanse of them for a long moment.

They sure had come a long way since the first time they got a view like this.

Eddie’s heart and stomach twisted a little, and it wasn’t clear who’s feelings provoked it.

He lifted his hand, Venom intertwined between his fingers, and pressed the symbiote against his lips. The substance of his Other felt cool and smooth as always, almost slick, but his breath warmed it and he felt Venom shift minutely under the attention, pleasure worming through them.

**You are kissing us.**

Eddie let out a little breath of a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess I kind of am, aren’t I?”

**Why did we come here, Eddie?**

The man scratched his jaw idly. “I dunno, I wanted you to see it. Wanted to share it with you.”

**Like those people?** Venom asked, urging Eddie to look over his shoulder up to where people were actually supposed to be to look at the city at the man and woman there.

“Oh. I mean, I think those two are dating” Eddie said as he spotted them, hands clasped, and he turned back to the view.

**Like in the movies?**

“Yeah.”

**Is this a date?**

Eddie bit his lip.

Was it?

He ran a ran through his hair.

It…definitely looked like one, didn’t it? Well shit.

“I… I don’t know.”

**We are holding hands as well** Venom pointed out, the tendrils wrapped around and between Eddie’s fingers tightening a little.

Eddie didn’t really know how to feel about that.

He loved Venom, he really did, and yeah, they held hands -sort of- a lot, but was it like that? He supposed it would be hard to define the relationship when it was something that had never happened before. He had never actually listed them as platonic; they were something…entirely new. Unprecedented.

What the hell was someone supposed to do when there was no set standard to either go along with or defy?

“Well. This is…new.”

**Is it?**

Eddie chewed his lip. “No, I… I guess not. I just never noticed.”

They watched the tiny cars in the distance moving between buildings along all the streets, away from it all even if only for a short time.

**We like being here together** Venom said.

“Yeah. I do too.”


	13. Nipples

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a random little one I wrote up XD

**What purpose do these serve, Eddie?**

Eddie finished up rinsing shampoo out of his hair and straightened back up, the hot water beating against his back from the shower head. “What purpose do what serve?”

 **These,** Venom rumbled, oozing from his other half’s chest to sprawl over the expanse of his chest and reach his nipples.

“Hey don’t touch those” Eddie complained, batting at his Other gently to make him sink back under his skin respectfully.

**Why do you have them?**

“Humans are mammals, so we’ve got nipples to feed babies with.”

Confusion bounced around in their head.

**You feed young with your nipples?**

Eddie chuckled as he lathered his arms with body wash. “Uh, no” he shook his head. “Women can feed their babies breastmilk after they give birth to them. I’m a guy so it doesn’t work like that for me. That’s why I don’t have boobs.”

 **Then…why do you have nipples? They don’t do anything** Venom asked, perplexed.

“Oh, I actually looked that up one day” Eddie said. “When we’re in the womb, our nipples are developed _before_ our sex is decided.”

**Humans are not very efficient. We simply share nutrients with our young through contact and they are able to live on their own very early on.**

“Yeah I guess that is more efficient. But didn’t you say you were like…millions of years old?”

**Six hundred million.**

“Yyyeah. That’s…way longer than humans have been around” Eddie breathed a little self-conscious laugh, rinsing the soap off his arms in the spray of the shower. “You guys have had like, an unfathomable amount of time to perfect things.”

**How old are you, Eddie?**

“Me? I’m thirty-six. Gonna be turning thirty-seven soon.”

**Thirty-six what?**

“Uh, years?”

**Oh.**

Eddie snorted a little. “Did you not know how old I was?”

**Never thought to ask.**

“True I guess.”

It went quiet between them as Eddie continued to wash up for a little while.

**Humans are very vulnerable.**

“Huh?”

**They’re very vulnerable. You are very vulnerable. Humans can come down with a sickness from mere germs and never recover. They could misstep and die.**

“Well, yeah, I guess. But they can be pretty strong too, V. Humans started off just living off in the wilderness with nothing but their developing intelligence and we’ve survived long enough to get here. We used to be apes.”

**Like gorillas?**

“Yeah, chimps too, we were a different kind of ape that evolved over time into us” Eddie nodded.

 **The Klyntar are an ancient species. We have been around since the beginning. We did not evolve to be** Venom rumbled thoughtfully. **Will you evolve into a different species, Eddie?**

“No, no” Eddie snickered. “Evolving is something that happens over many, many generations. I’m not gonna turn into anything, I’m just the way I am.” He paused. “Or, well, the way _we_ are, now.”

 **Yes** Venom crooned pridefully. **The way _we_ are.**


	14. Brownies

**“What are…brown-eyes, Eddie?”**

Eddie narrowly avoided choking on his lo mein, patting his chest, before giggling. “Uh-hum, it’s slang for your asshole.”

**“I don’t have an asshole.”**

“No not _you_ you, the figurative you.”

**“Oh.”**

“What on earth are you looking at that you saw that?” Eddie asked, leaning over to where Venom had his phone on the table. The symbiote might be pretty unknowledgeable when it came to earth; but he wasn’t a kid, and Eddie didn’t have a problem with him doing what he liked with his phone to a certain extent.

To his surprise; it was food that covered the screen, all sorts of sweets and cookies and cakes and “Oh my god” he said, covering his mouth to hide the smile that stretched across his face. “No, no buddy. Those are _brownies_.”

**“Brownies?”**

“Yeah, not fucking _brown-eyes_ ,” he sniggered before dissolving into laughter, feeling his Other’s petulance over their bond.

 **“Quiet, Eddie”** Venom grumbled.

Eddie had to wipe his eyes when he finally quieted down, wheezing an “okay, okay, sorry.”

**“So, what _are_ brownies?”**

“It’s a chocolate thing.”

**“Is it tasty?”**

“Super tasty. Maybe we can get some brownie mix tomorrow, yeah bud?”

Despite Venom’s somewhat short attention span; he had no problem remembering the offer when they went to the store, demanding that they get some as soon as they entered.

Eddie had kindly added a basic _Betty Crocker_ brownie mix to their basket.

“Okay so let’s see…we gotta preheat the oven while we mix everything up it says” Eddie mumbled, Venom protruding from his shoulder and stretching around the kitchen to grab the things they needed as Eddie listed them off; the egg carton from the fridge, vegetable oil, a big bowl, and measuring cups and spoons.

He set the oven to three-hundred and seventy-five before stepping to the counter next to it where Venom had set up. It wasn’t very organized, but that was alright.

Pouring the mix into the bowl was more or less effortless, but it had been a while since he had cracked an egg and he was careful as he tapped it on the edge of the bowl and dug his thumbs into the shell over to split it open over it. “Haha hey, look at that, not bad” he said, tossing the shells in the trash after picking the one little bit out of the bowl.

**“We want to try.”**

“Sure,” Eddie smiled, getting down a smaller bowl for Venom to crack it in so if he made a mess it wouldn’t ruin the mix. “Might wanna use our hands though.”

It was still a strange feeling for Venom to control their body, Eddie’s brain having no input to what his hands did and his muscle memory of how to do the action suddenly gone, still abnormal, but he had been somewhat desensitized to it.

Venom awkwardly chose an egg from the carton, bringing it to the edge of the bowl slow and careful before bringing it down like he had seen Eddie do.

Only for the entire egg to shatter at the force, sending egg yolk and white over the counter.

Their hands pulled back in distress for Venom to exclaim **“sorry!”**

“It’s okay V” Eddie assured, taking back control to hurriedly grab a dishrag and wipe everything up. “That was just your first try.”

On the second, Venom was much gentler, and other than the shards of shell that Eddie had meticulously pick out; he did pretty well.

With adding three tablespoons of water and half a cup of vegetable oil; Eddie set his Other on mixing duty as he got out the pan and spread a teaspoon of more vegetable oil all over so the brownies hopefully wouldn’t stick.

It took a while to mix everything up with plentiful “taste tests” and Venom was anything but patient as the apartment was slowly filled with the smell of the baking brownies after putting it in the oven, but was eventually sated when distracted with _Golden Girls_ and chocolate kisses in the meantime.

They came to a familiar predicament when the brownies came out of the oven though.

 **“Eddie, we have waited and suffered for half an hour already! We cannot wait another forty!”** Venom cried.

“Dude we’ve got over this before; you can’t eat hot shit right away.”

**“We did not use hot water this time!”**

“No, but we literally made them with heat.”

**“Well we shouldn’t have done that!”**

“That’s…” Eddie squinted. “That’s not…”

It was a painful forty minutes.

But it paid off as they clumsily cut up the brownies, mouth watering, and skipped getting a plate as they proceeded to shove them in their mouth. Colours lit up all across their mindscape at the taste and texture and they couldn’t help but moan, though who the noise came from initially was unclear as it came from Eddie’s throat and stroked over their mind equally.

 **This is the tastiest thing we have ever eaten other than brains** Venom growled happily, riding the high of serotonin and chocolate.

They probably should have saved some so that all their hard work wasn’t gone in the span of an hour.


	15. Birthday

“Eddie, are you doing anything for your birthday this week?”

Eddie looked up to Anne from the lasagna he was wolfing down, only a little startled.

“Ooh, yeah! You doing anything fun?” Dan added, holding his fork in an almost obnoxiously polite way.

“Ahh…not really. I don’t know” Eddie shrugged, offhandedly looking down to spy Venom’s smaller form slinking from his forearm to lick at the sauce on his plate. The symbiote’s blank, opal eyes shifted slightly to glance at him.

Anne rolled her eyes.

“How am I surprised? You’ve always been so weird about birthdays.”

“Oh?” Dan asked, raising his eyebrows and asking her to elaborate with his curious expression alone.

Eddie hunched his shoulders a little and dug back into his dinner as Anne gave a dramatic “ _ohh_ yes”.

“One time I was going to throw him a surprise party and he didn’t even show up! I had invited a couple of his reporter friends -only a few, you know how he is- and we were all waiting and waiting and so I finally called him and guess what?”

“What?” Dan’s eyes sparkled.

“He had _forgotten_ his fucking birthday! He was just aimlessly driving around on his bike all night for a joyride. Out of _all_ the nights to do so.”

Dan covered his mouth as he snickered, holding back, but the way his eyes crinkled and shimmered when he looked over to Eddie said it all.

Anne didn’t go for polite and simply laughed the kind of wholehearted laugh that made the shame worth it.

Even Venom quivered in amusement, the feeling tickling over Eddie’s mind.

“Alright, alright,” he said, waving his hand. “You’ve had your fun.”

“Oh, but I’m not done!” Anne exclaimed, turning to Dan. “We gave him gifts of course, and while he thanked us and everything; he was sooo awkward and it was like he had never seen a gift in his life! He spent like the whole night shuffling around and smiling nervously” she chortled. “We didn’t have any other parties, we just went out and had a nice evening for the rest of his birthdays and I’d get him a little something.”

“Yup. Alright, great,” Eddie moaned, covering his face with his hands in embarrassment but couldn’t help a little breathy laugh at his own expense.

“Aw, it’s alright Eddie, not everyone does the whole birthday thing” Dan assured.

It was when he was getting ready for bed later that night that Dan got a text from Eddie.

_Eddie: Dan_

He looked at it for a moment, perplexed.

_Dan: Yeah, what’s up?_

_Eddie: Is Eddie goign to giv birth? Is thsi a normal thign?_

Dan stared at his phone.

_Dan: I’m sorry, what?_

_Eddie: This is Venoim_

“Oh,” he said softly, as if it explained everything.

_Dan: Oh, hey bud. And no, I don’t believe so? Why do you ask._

_Eddie: You guys werre talking about hsi “birthday”. Is he going to giev birth?_

_Dan: Ohhh. No. It’s just the day he was born, he’s going to be a year older this Tuesday._

_Eddie: Oh good. We are not perpared for offsprigg_

Dan chuckled.

_Dan: Yeah, I would think not._

That Tuesday when Eddie woke up; he knew something was off just from the tightness in his chest and the fake quiet in his mind.

“Venom?” he asked, both concerned and suspicious.

 **Yes?** the symbiote asked, sounding sweetly innocent.

That’s when Eddie spotted the smear of…blood.

In his bed.

“Fuck man, really?” he sighed, pulling at the blankets. “I said you could go out last night if you _didn’t_ make a—”

He froze.

 **Do you like it, Eddie?** Venom purred after a moment of silence.

Eddie wanted to snap, or maybe shriek, say “ _no_ , absolutely _not_ ” but the hopeful tone had him forcing himself to calm.

“Venom,” he began. “Why is there a dead rat in our bed?”

**For your birthday.**

Eddie stared at the mangled thing curled up in his sheets, trying to keep his heart rate under control.

**We know you cannot eat it, but we know how you appreciate it when we kill vermin, so we killed one for you while you were sleeping. We overheard that you give gifts for one’s birthday.**

Venom oozed through Eddie’s bloodstream uneasily at the man’s lack of response.

**We got you another gift as well, if you would like to see that one.**

“Ah- yes. Yes, let’s,” Eddie agreed, climbing off the bed to get away from the horror as soon as he snapped out of his shock and let his Other guide him to the kitchen where he could see a little box on the island counter waiting for him. It didn’t have any blood on it, which was a good sign.

He rubbed his eye tiredly before picking up the thin, modest box and carefully opening it, feeling Venom’s eagerness racing down his spine.

**This one took more thought. You will like this one even more.**

Eddie set the lid down on the island counter and gingerly lifted the tiny sheet of wrapping paper covering his gift before his breath stilled.

He was quiet again, like before, but Venom could feel the difference; the feelings of _happy_ surprise, the peculiar feeling of togetherness, the feeling of _love_.

“It’s beautiful,” Eddie murmured after a long moment, as if being too loud would spoil it as he took the bracelet out of its box, setting the cardboard down to look at it with awe.

It was beaded, pitch black, and most of the beads were a rocky and textured opaque while six that sat together were a shinning metallic, reflecting the light.

 **The man said that this was lava rock,** Venom said, thin tendrils seeping out of Eddie’s finger to indicate the rocky beads. **And these are heam-a-tite** he pointed to the shiny ones. Eddie’s lips quirked in a smile, his heart hurting in the most painful yet painless way.

“It’s perfect, love.”


	16. Piercing

“So, uh. I’ve got a bit of an announcement. And I…don’t know if you’ll like it” Eddie began. “You probably won’t.”

The feelings that passed over their bond were curious but reluctant, a bit trepidatious.

**Why would I not like it?**

“Okay. So. I wanted to get a piercing where I used to have one and we’re gonna do it today; I got an appointment, but you’ve never had one and you probably won’t like it the actually _getting_ it part...”

**Piercing? Like…piercing flesh…?**

“Yeah” Eddie replied a bit bluntly.

**Where? _Why_?** Venom asked, concerned.

Eddie put his hands together, preparing himself to attempt to explain something he knew would be hard for his Other to grasp as he looked down at the cooking bacon on the stove. “Yeah. Okay. So uh, when I was in college, I had a nipple ring aaand I kinda miss it. I’ve been thinking about it and since we have the money; I’m gonna go get it redone.”

**Pierce your nipple? They are sensitive though, that would hurt!** Venom said incredulously.

“Yeah, it does.”

**Then why would we do it? Why would we have someone hurt us?**

“’Cause I like how it looks. I think they look sexy” Eddie said. “It doesn’t hurt very bad, just for a moment. But I’m warning you ‘cause you don’t get to hurt the piercer, they’re real nice and we’re paying them to do this” he explained, flipping the sizzling bacon over on the pan.

Venom oozed from Eddie’s bicep, slithering down to wrap around and squeeze his forearm a little possessively. **You _want_ to get hurt for this…piercing?**

Eddie shrugged. “I mean, I want the piercing and pain is just a part of getting it. Some people like the pain though.”

**What will it look like?**

“The piercing? It’s body jewelry, they put metal jewelry though the hole they made and you wear it. They’ll put barbells in my nipples ‘cause they don’t move around like rings do but after they fully heal, I could get rings. Or keep the barbells. Whatever we like.”

**What _we_ like?**

“Yeah. I mean, you’re part of us. I get to choose what I do about tattoos and piercings and stuff but your opinion matters too bud.”

Venom simmered down a bit, begrudgingly, still uneasy but willing to let it pass for now, especially in the face of bacon as he stretched out and materialized his head to delicately steal a piece from the pan, hot but not too badly so.

His nerves returned when their appointment came and they went out to Rose Gold’s Tattoo and Piercing shop though, a lit sign reading _tattoo_ above the door and pointing inside. It had been easier not to think about when they were doing other things like eating. And…more eating.

“Hey, you must be Eddie? The three o’clock?” the woman behind the desk asked when they came up to it, looking up from the magazine she was reading.

“Yeah, that’s me” Eddie nodded, wiping under his nose a little.

“Cool, I have your consent form to fill out right here” the woman said, leaning over to hand them the paper on a clipboard and a pen. “You go ahead and fill that out while I tell Ezekiel you’re here so he can set up. What are you having done today?”

“Uh, nipples,” Eddie replied, glancing up from where his eyes were scanning the consent form.

“One or both?”

“Both” he said after a moment.

“Alright great, he’ll be with you in a moment.”

**Do I get to heal you right after?** Venom asked as soon as they sat down on a chair.

_No._

**Why not?**

_‘Cause healing is part of the process_ Eddie explained in their mind as he wrote his name and marked down what he was getting, the run of mill stuff.

Venom squirmed a bit irritably, annoyed by the strange persistence, before darting deep into Eddie’s chest as a tall darker man came up front. Was it already time?

“Hey man, I’m Ezekiel, I’m the guy that’s going to be piercing your tits” the man smiled good-naturedly, coming over to offer them his hand.

“Oh, great” Eddie giggled, giving Ezekiel’s hand a firm shake before going and handing his form to the woman at the desk to follow him back into a room.

“So, when you called you said that you had already had one pierced a while back?” Ezekiel asked as he sat down on his rolling stool, giving his tools a once over.

“Yeah. I had the right one pierced when I was in college but it’s all closed up now” Eddie nodded, getting into the chair at Ezekiel’s gesturing.

“Alright. It should be just fine but lemme check to make sure any scar tissue isn’t going to fuck us up” Ezekiel said, strapping on some fresh latex gloves and wheeling over.

Eddie pulled his shirt over his head and leant back, only feeling a tiny bit weird about Ezekiel checking his nipple out with his thumb and forefinger.

**How come _he_ gets to touch our nipples?**

_He’s just doing his job, V._

“Alright we’re good to go Eddie,” Ezekiel nodded, pulling his little table over to open the little package of alcohol pads. “You down to start with this one?”

“Yeah that’s fine” Eddie croaked, the pre-piercing jitters finally starting to show themselves as his heart sped up a little. He could feel Venom’s nerves too even as the symbiote tried to send him reassurance that he reciprocated, muddled feelings of anxiety and safety getting passed back and forth between them.

The alcohol pad brought him back down to earth as its coldness touched his sensitive nipple and he chewed his lip as Ezekiel carefully marked where the needle would go in and inevitably come back out again before the clamps came and were even colder, making his skin prickle.

“Okay, you ready?” Ezekiel asked, bringing over the sterilized needle fresh from the package.

“Yeah” Eddie nodded, gripping the chair with his left hand.

“Breath in, deep breath out.”

Eddie did.

“Again.”

He did again, and then again, and on the third breath out; the needle was piercing his flesh and he grit his teeth, stomach twisting at the sharp sting and the distinct feeling of it going out through the other side.

“Hooo” he whimpered, looking down at his chest, the actual piercing done as quickly as it had come.

The clamp was taken off, the barbell was slid in, and the needle was removed, leaving a nice piece of titanium jewelry behind.

“Damn” Eddie smiled down at the metal, just a little drunk on the adrenaline. “I missed the look of that.”

Ezekiel chuckled as he opened up fresh supplies. “Yeah, they do look nice, don’t they?”

**That was not as…bad as I was expecting** Venom rumbled quietly in their mind.

_It never is._

“You ready for the next one? Or do you need a minute?”

“Naw I’m good” Eddie shook his head. “Let’s do it.”

His left nipple was cleaned, marked, clamped, and the needle was pressed through with the same amount of care and efficiency as the right, the pain making him wince and maybe a a tad queasy, but fine overall.

“They look great man” Ezekiel smiled as it was all finished and he set his tools back on the tray, getting the aftercare sheet after cleaning up both nipples.

“Thanks” Eddie chuckled somewhat breathlessly.

“Alright so we’ve got the average aftercare with these guys -which you probably already know-, go ahead and make sure to clean them every day with something gentle like Dove after you shower and then soak them with Epsom salts two or three times a day, or even better; buy some of our piercing cleaner up front” Ezekiel winked, handing Eddie the paper. “My business number is on there if you have any complications or questions, go ahead and give me a call, and they should take about six months to fully heal up. Until then, try not to play with em and don’t do anything stupid.”

“Thank you” Eddie said again, grabbing his shirt and climbing out of the chair, just now discovering the sweat on his back as it grew cold.

“I’ll be right up front ready for you to pay, come up when you’re ready” Ezekiel smiled, heading out of the room after peeling off his latex gloves and tossing them in the trash.

Eddie chewed his lip as he went over to the mirror to see the titanium barbells glinting on his chest attractively, eyeing them with admiration. It had been a while since he even got any tattoo work down, and he had missed getting to see something new and pretty on his body.

“What do ya think, bud?” he asked, looking down and bringing a hand to his pec to check them out but making sure not to touch them directly.

**They are sort of nice we guess** Venom admitted. **They’re quite sore though.**

“Yeah” Eddie chuckled. “They’re gonna be like that for a while though, V.”

He carefully pulled his shirt back over his head, easily falling back into the groove of being overprotective over new work.

**What did you call nipple piercings again?**

Eddie paused for a moment, confused, before he tried “…sexy?”

**Hm. Yes** Venom hummed. **They’re sexy.**


	17. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to DTR lol. Also sorry for not posting for a while! I've been having a bit of trouble with my writing flow and life has been wacky and unfortunately will continue for a little while 

**Eddie?**

“Hnn…yeah?” Eddie mumbled into his pillow, voice gentle with sleep.

**You know a lot about feelings, right?**

Eddie’s brow furrowed a bit and he shifted his head to the side to rub his eye. “I mean…I guess? Why?”

**I am feeling very confused. There seems to be so many different kinds of love. Humans love all sorts of things and people but…it’s all different and yet it’s all love. How are they all so different without blatant differences? I have never felt love before and I don’t know how to distinguish them.**

Eddie was quiet for a long, long moment.

What a thing to lay on someone at one in the morning.

“Hoo…uhm…” he ran a hand through his hair. “Well, you’re right; there are a lot of different kinds of love” he said, rolling over onto his back to look up at the ceiling, wincing a little as his shirt ran over his still fresh piercings. “I don’t really know _how_ they’re different though. I dunno if anyone does, they’re just…different. It’s a feeling you have.”

**We love each other.**

Eddie swallowed.

“Yeah, we do.”

**But _how_ do we love each other? How do you know what kind of love you are feeling?**

Eddie puffed out his cheeks as he let out a breath. “I mean…I don’t even really know if we would be able to define us. Humans and symbiotes haven’t bonded together before. The only others were Drake and Riot and they weren’t like us; they weren’t One.”

**We want a lot of things, Eddie** Venom admitted, spreading warm and alive over his other half’s chest below the surface. **We do not know what those things are though.**

Eddie’s finger twitched with the urge to put his hand on his chest but instead he brought it up to chew on the skin of his thumb.

“Love is a confusing thing, V. I mean, me and Anne were in love, about to get married, and now we still love each other but in a different way. It isn’t romantic anymore. Her and Dan are romantic.”

**Love changes just like that?**

“Well, no, that’s not what I meant. It can and does change and is complicated is what I’m saying. Getting over Anne took a really long time and a lot of…” he trailed off. “Time.”

It was quiet for a few moments.

**You and Anne used to kiss and go on dates and have sex. Is that what makes love romantic?**

“Those are things you usually do in a romantic relationship but that isn’t what makes it romantic, it’s the feelings.”

**We kissed once.**

“Ah…yes. Yes, we did.”

Eddie still didn’t really know what he felt about that, had let it drift away, muddled up in the shit show that was that night.

**Was that romantic?**

“I…” he breathed a little laugh. “I don’t really know what that was. I don’t know what we are.”

**Me neither.**

“We’ll have to think about it, I guess. I’ve learned a bit after Anne and, well, you gotta be open and honest about shit. On the same page.”

**Maybe we should start with what we know?** Venom offered.

“Sure” Eddie agreed, chest feeling tight. It really had been a long time since he had to do anything like this. Was he even ready for this?

**We are two halves of a whole. We are one.**

“Yeah,” he breathed.

**And we take care of each other, we love each other.**

Eddie chewed his lip a little, nodding. “We do.”

**But…** Venom began, oozing through veins and across the expanse of Eddie’s heart as it beat. **We _don’t_ know in what _way_ we love each other.**

“So that’s what we have to work on.”

**How do we do that?**

“Well, we could start small, just see what we’re comfortable with... And we’ll both think about it, yeah?” Eddie said, picking at his fingernail. “Let’s take it slow though. I uh. The idea of defining Us is kind of daunting to me right now” he said, swallowing.

**Are you scared, Eddie?** Venom asked, meek, seeping out of the man’s wrist to stretch across his palm and entangle between his fingers.

“A little” Eddie admitted, rolling back onto his side and looking at his newest bracelet wrapped around his wrist, heart pounding a little bit faster.

He had called Venom ‘love’ then, when he gave it to him.

“Just. When you fuck up your last relationship so spectacularly; you get worried you’ll do it again. You get worried that you don’t deserve another one” he sighed. “It can take a while to get over that.”

**We are always one, always will be** Venom rumbled. **We will find how our symbiosis fits into _descriptions_ when we are ready to.**

“Yeah” Eddie said, admiring the way Venom glinted in the darkness on his hand. He was long accustomed to the sight of his Other against his skin, and he wasn’t anything but pretty by now.

**You look at us with longing, Eddie.**

Eddie swallowed, taking his gaze away a little shyly.

**We look at you with longing as well. We do not entirely understand it though yet, what that means for us.**

“I don’t know what it means for me either” Eddie laughed softly, nervously.

God, _longing_?

That could open an entirely different can of worms if they weren’t careful.

One that Eddie was entirely sure was not ready to be opened.

For now though, he looked back to Venom pooled in his palm, inky black and slick, and ran his thumb over him gently.

“Let’s get some sleep, okay?”

**Okay** Venom agreed, rippling under Eddie’s thumb a little. **Love you, Eddie.**

“Love you too, V.”


	18. Trauma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No way our babies made it out of all that shit with Riot without *some* form of ptsd rip so here's a chapter based on a headcannon I have on one of the ways it effects them. I used my experience with having anxiety and panic attacks to try to be as true to the experience as possible but I don't have ptsd as far as I know so just keep that in mind :)
> 
> Also I just wanted to give a little thanks to everyone who's reading and for all your guys' sweet comments! This is my first time truly writing a multi chapter fic and it's been a lot of fun in general but everyone's comments and suggestions have just been been motivating me more and making me want to keep going! I don't really reply cuz there's so many but I read each and every one! ^ ^

Eddie had never been much of a beach goer.

He wasn’t fond of sand, and while he could appreciate the beauty, the sights and sounds, he didn’t really go to the beach just because he felt like it.

But he had been invited to a little group outing with some other free lance journalists -mostly younger hipsters, not that he minded that much- and thought _why the hell not_.

Venom had liked the prospect of food and Eddie had been somewhat interested in conversing with some new people even if he was more introverted. The get together wasn’t much of a _go to the beach and go swimming_ one either because of the season which was a bonus since the two of them couldn’t swim anyway with healing piercings.

Not to mention the last time Eddie had been in the ocean he had plummeted into it, nearly frozen/drowned to death, and thought he had lost Venom.

_Not the time for that, Eddie._

Going out turned out to be pretty fun, arriving as the sky had began to turn pink and lilac and cooking hotdogs on a little grill one of the guys had brought. One of the girls had brought a Bluetooth speaker and everyone took turns playing songs and drinking beer and dancing.

It was charming to be invited, honest fun to be around some other people, and everyone was friendly and welcoming.

A number of them even knew him; of T _he Brock Report_ and the Life Foundation fiasco.

“Damn, and they didn’t like, give you _any_ money compensation for the whole thing? Jesus” a younger, pretty boy had remarked after they had all migrated to a circle as the sun dipped lower in the sky.

“Yeah” Eddie had snorted. “We’re doing fine though. A lot closer to living instead of surviving” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“We?” a girl asked, curious.

Eddie stiffened, his gut tight and Venom twisting inside him peculiarly.

“Uh” he began. “Me and my…Other. We live together.”

The fear melted from his shoulders as he saw they way the group smiled, happy for him and thinking they understood what he meant. Eddie didn’t feel a need to be perceived as ‘normal’, but it was admittedly nice, and Venom settled warm and fond in his stomach as they found a strange little corner of themselves. Nothing to explain, just that he had Another. Or, well, sort of.

The sand was cool underneath them, and the fall air was starting to get a bit cold without the sun, not to mention the ever-deepening darkness setting in that pushed them all to set about making a fire. A few of them dug a shallow hole and lined it with rocks while others -Eddie and Venom included- gathered bits of wood from around the beach to pile up. Dry grass from further away from the water was lit with someone’s lighter to transfer a small starter fire to the collection of driest bits of driftwood.

Eddie had thought nothing of a campfire, Venom either, unbothered by matches, lighters, or even the grill they used for the hotdogs, but as the fire climbed over the logs and sticks, swallowing them up with bright heat and growing; they both found themselves stilling in the face of it.

It was a strange intensity of feeling; one Eddie hadn’t really experienced since he was little.

The fear.

The kind of fear that had his throat tight and breath shallow, palms clammy with sweat as he and Venom stared at the horror that everyone else was unbothered by.

The fire was just too big for him.

He could feel the burning heat nearly kissing his skin, the light blinding him as it ate through Venom’s flesh and sent his pain receptors just as fiery as the flames themselves.

He needed to protect Eddie—no, that’s…he couldn’t lose Venom—wait, no, they were—

He couldn’t see, he couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t—

“Eddie?”

They jerked away with a choked gasp, screwing their eyes shut against the hot light that made them burn as someone clapped a hand on their shoulder.

“You okay? You don’t look so good” another voice said as they hunched over a bit, covering their eyes.

It was almost painful to just give a whimpered “the fire”.

They could hear the people around them trying to puzzle what was wrong, but it only half processed.

“Fuck dude, the rocket at the Life Foundation, he was there for that, right?”

“Yeah I think that’s what the news said.”

“It’s freaking him out, get him away from the fire babe.”

Feeling the heat dissipate from in front of them as a boy pulled them away from the campfire was a godsend and they were sat down on the sand, sucking in air shakily.

It took a few minutes of breathing exercises he remembered from when he struggled more with anxiety and trying ground himself, not get lost in the ugly paintings of memory, but Eddie came back to himself enough to strain out “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would…” as he clutched his chest, trying to soothe his Other even when he himself wasn’t calm yet.

As he looked around to see the group huddled around him with concern, his heart sank with shame, adding to the swamp of emotions wrapped up in his head, Venom’s feelings confusing and muddled. A mantra of tangled inputs in the background, not quite actually there.

“Hey, it’s okay, everyone’s got their thing, y’know?” the young woman in front of him said.

“You okay?”

“Yeah” Eddie swallowed, running a shaky hand through his hair. “Yeah I’m okay. I just…I think I need to go home. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll call an Uber” someone offered, pulling out their phone.

When the car arrived; Eddie bid everyone farewell, thanked them for a nice time, and declined having someone walk him to it.

The walk along the cold, quiet beach was relieving, and he and Venom didn’t look back to the campfire, instead up at the stars speckling the sky. No bad memories of burning, freezing, or drowning there.

**Sorry, Eddie.**

“Why are you sorry?” Eddie asked, rubbing his palm over his sternum a little at the conflicting, unidentifiable feelings clogging his heart and lungs where Venom had centered himself.

**Got scared. Didn’t protect us.**

“Oh, V, no. We’re okay. We didn’t know that was gonna happen” Eddie breathed. “We couldn’t have known, honey.”

**Why did that happen, Eddie? Why did we get so scared?**

“I don’t know” he replied, tucking his hands in his jacket pockets and hunching his shoulders a little as they walked down the beach. “The human brain has certain ways of dealing with trauma. Let’s just…let’s be more careful with fire from now on, yeah? Keep exposure small.”

 **Okay** Venom agreed, tucking comfortably underneath Eddie’s ribs, safe and warm, if a little shaken up.

“How does Netflix and chocolate before bed sound? Forget about…” Eddie swallowed, hints of anxiety creeping in the edges of his mind “you know.”

**Yes, we’d like that.**


	19. Sore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is being a bitch, sorry I haven't posted a new chapter in a while but here's one! Plus with Endgame coming out I took a little break to obsess lol.

**This is no fun Eddie! Must we do this?**

Eddie’s cheeks puffed out as he blew out a hard, forced breath before sucking another back in, working to keep focused with sweat beading at his brow.

He didn’t answer immediately, making sure to keep his posture and stance correct as he squat and his muscles trembled a little under the weight balanced on his palms and shoulders.

“Yeah” he finally replied, breathing heavy after pushing up and carefully setting his weights down. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, and then wiped that on his shorts before getting his water bottle to swallow some down thirstily.

**Why though?**

Eddie could understand Venom’s distaste; he wasn’t especially fond of weight training either, but he had been out of the game for almost a year now and it had used to help stave off his depression, his body missing the hurt now that it was gone.

“Because it’s good for you. Exercise is good.”

**We do not need to exercise!** Venom retorted as Eddie went back to the weights to start up again. **We chase criminals! Even then, we take the access from your body to ourselves.**

Was that how that worked? Did Venom eat the ‘leftovers’ and leave him with what his body needed? That could explain why he wasn’t fat after all this time of eating goddamn garbage…

“Running around and you leeching off me isn’t gonna build muscle,” Eddie pointed out before hefting his weights back up, growling a bit at the effort. “I used to be able to do three plates without issue” he boasted, not particularly impressive when the person he was telling could lift a car and he was gritting the words out, strained.

**You are struggling with two, now** Venom rumbled unhelpfully.

“Yeah, well,” Eddie paused to breathe. “I just gotta work back up to it.”

Psh.

That it made it sound like he _wasn’t_ known for pushing himself too far and being a bit brutal with his sets.

Maybe his Other’s whining wasn’t so bad though because he only stumbled over the edge of what he could take rather than jumped off it like he used to.

The next morning was an old familiarity; waking up on his belly and moaning with soreness as soon as he moved.

His shoulders and upper back cried out silently as he flexed them, and then his thighs joined in as he shifted under the covers to get more comfortable, sighing in relief when he found a suitable position to settle back down in. He hadn’t really moved that much, mostly just went from facing right on his belly to left, but damn did it feel good to give in to the temptation to get comfy again instead of getting up.

Of course, Venom took that moment to start complaining.

**We’re soorrre, Eddiiie.**

Eddie merely groaned a little noise of acknowledgement, face pressed into the pillow.

**Our muscles hurt, is it because of working out yesterday?**

“Uh-huh.”

Eddie could blearily feel his Other oozing from the small of his back, stretching out warm and soothing over his skin up to his shoulders, spreading over the expanse of his upper back. It was nice; Venom rolling and shifting a bit like a massage.

Their mindscape was still fairly gentle with sleepiness, and Venom quieted down to _feel_.

He spread more of himself _through_ Eddie’s muscles, working deep and pronouncing the ache; making their nerves light up and the man moan into the pillow. He was unsure if it hurt or felt good, the sensations blurring the lines, but by the gratitude and appreciation washing over them from Eddie’s side; he knew to keep going.

**Does this help?** he asked, working over and around Eddie’s shoulder blades, the back of his neck, and his trapezius.

“Yeah,” Eddie breathed, unable to help from squirming a little under his Other’s ministrations, fingers curling in the sheets. “Feels fucking amazing. How’d you know to do that?”

**Memories** Venom supplied. **Memories of ‘shoulder massages’ and…intimacy.**

Physical intimacy -now properly identified- felt raw and new between them, something special and quiet that they had only dipped their toes into until now. Their own way of holding hands had always been precious but it came with plenty of different emotions; excitement, sadness, contentedness, comfort, protectiveness, while this was much more distinctive.

Relief; pleasure.

Togetherness.

Eddie’s back flexed, muscles rolling and only trembling a little at Venom coursing through them. He felt simultaneously the most relaxed and most tensed up he’s ever felt.

And then other feelings began to flit over him, feelings that it took a moment to realize weren’t his.

He could feel his own skin, the heat and solidity of him, a tenderness and loving that felt so similar and yet still different than his own. A different perspective.

Eddie didn’t have to ask Venom, a wordless accordance twisting through his mind just as the sleepy realization of where the feelings came from came upon him.

Neither of them was entirely sure how it worked; what caused their individualities to meld so seamlessly like they sometimes did. Sometimes it was caused by adrenaline, sometimes strong emotions like anger, sometimes just from feeling like one.

It was an experience all their own.

And it felt _good_.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave suggestions for chapters/scenarios you'd like to see! :)


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